The folks at Critical Square would like to wish all of you Happy Holidays! Now, for some of you, the holidays might be a little happier than for others if you received the much coveted "you're in!" call. For others, however, who may have gotten the dreaded "dinged" or, just as bad, "we don't quite know yet / waitlist" email. If you're in that boat, it's time to start thinking about your contingency plan. After a little much needed eggnog, that is!

For most of you, there are two main options - go for R2 or postpone until R1 next year. Some of you may be considering R3 as well but that's a small fraction of you and we generally don't recommend R3 applications for most individuals. So, now what?

1. Onward to R2 Apps!
You were hoping that it wouldn't come down to this. You've been dinged or waitlisted by your first pick schools and now faced with only two weeks before your R2 deadlines. Some of you may have already started working on your second round apps - good job! Planning ahead is a critical first step. For those of you who didn't, you're probably under a lot of stress so what should you do?

First things first - secure your recommendations as soon as possible. Many folks will be on vacation and unavailable until right before the deadlines so you need to mitigate that risk. Hopefully, you have followed our previous advice and have recommender packets already put together.

Next, you need to gather as much information on your round two target programs as possible. If you didn't do school visits or speak to alumni and current students before break, the Internet will become your best friend. Not only should you thoroughly study the school's main pages but explore student blogs, online video of classes, and articles from MBA websites to give you the in-depth details you need for your essays and interviews.

Finally, you need to determine which essays from your R1 applications can be leveraged for your R2 essays to save yourself some time. We never advocate reusing material but desperate times call for desperate measures! However, don't think this is a copy and paste exercise because you are running out of time. You should still spend a fair amount of time reworking these used essays to tailor them to your specific target programs.

2. Pump the Brakes and Reapply Next Year

Your heart was set on certain MBA programs and you won't consider going any other programs so you're willing to wait another year to get another shot at your dream programs. If you were lucky enough to remain on the waitlist, then this becomes a waiting game with some strategic engagement with the program. But you also need to think about what happens if you move off the waitlist in the wrong direction. Then what?

It's never too early to start getting ready for next year. Take a real hard look at your applications to see where your weaknesses may be. It might be worth having an admissions consultant go through it with you to give more detailed, valuable feedback. If it is a low GMAT score that kept you out, plan to retake it and start studying immediately. If it is work experience or lack of extracurriculars, you'll have an entire year to find those new opportunities to get those experiences that you lack. The most important question you will need to answer and an additional essay question you'll see as a re-applicant is what progress or changes have you made since the first time you have applied? Answering this question will be critical in being successful next year so start working on it now.

Good luck to everyone and please feel free to contact us at Critical Square if you have any questions or need last minute help on those applications.

Happy Holidays!

Bhavik